1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light sensor test unit, a method of testing a light sensor using the light sensor test unit, and a display apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a light sensor test unit capable of testing a light sensor built in a display panel, a method of testing the light sensor, and a display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) uses a liquid crystal which is a passive light element incapable of emitting light itself, so that an LCD panel receives a light from an exterior to display an image. The LCD is classified into two types according to the light used to display the image. That is, the LCD is classified into a transmissive LCD which uses an internal light generated from an inner light source to display the image and a reflective LCD which uses an external light generated from an outer light source to display the image.
In a transmissive LCD, a backlight is arranged under the LCD panel to provide a light to the LCD panel. The backlight consumes more than 70% of electric power used in the LCD. Thus, recently, a method which reduces the power consumption of the backlight by decreasing an intensity of the internal light generated from the backlight is suggested when an intensity of the external light applied from the exterior to the LCD. In order to sense the intensity of the external light, a light sensor is added to the LCD.
The light sensor is classified into two types. One is an internal type light sensor formed through a thin film process on the display panel and built in the display panel, and the other is an external type light sensor attached to the exterior of one side of the display panel module. The external type light sensor is separable from the display panel module, so that it is easier to test whether the light sensor is normally operated. However, the external type light sensor causes an increase of the LCD in size and an assembling process of the LCD becomes complicated by adding the external light sensor.
Accordingly, the built-in type light sensor has been widely employed recently. However, when using the built-in light sensor, it is difficult to test the operation of the light sensor and a technique which tests the built-in type light sensor has not been developed yet. Also, when the test process of the built-in type light sensor is omitted, a reliability of the display panel decreases.